I'm retired from racing. Really.

Lunch- 6- hot, high 70's today.  Beautiful.

PM- They were having a team competition at work with 1 mile run, 100m dash, 50m dash, jump rope, and obstacle course.  It was hot- 79 deg at the race start.  Some of my coworkers are great at short/mid distances, so my strategy was to build a lead quickly and hold them off.  I sprinted right from the gun and figured I was going fast enough when my hands and arms were tingly/numb within 60 seconds.  Built a 5 second lead by a quarter mile and pretty much held that the rest of the race as we went around the .68 mile GE running trail.  Finished in 4:59 feeling tired but good.  I'm not sure when my last sub-5 mile was, but it's been a while- I ran a 4:59 at Des News 10k, but last honest/flat sub-5 was probably college track in 1998, 14 years ago!  2nd place was seven or so seconds behind.  Then watched co-workers run sprints, then our team won the obstacle course and took home the overall trophy with 18,000 points (no, I have no idea how they did points).  Finished with 3 Panera Bread bagels.

Looks like it will be warm and wet for the race on Sat- low of 61 Fri night.  And that's some strange weather Friday that you'll not often see out west- low of 61, high of 63.  Gotta be humid for that to happen.

Signed up for Waldo 100k yesterday.  Good thing I didn't try to wait till after work- it filled in under 5 hours.  Last year it took over a month.  Such is the popularity of trail running this year.  It's a lot of money and a long ways to travel from just one race, but it's a classic and I want to have fun and do well.  Plus, top 2 go to Western States.  Looks like I'll be running ultras in NC, UT, CA, TN, and OR this year.  Travelling man.

Lunch- 4 ez. 

Full report posted.  Had a fun time at a very technical trail race that was threatning to be cancelled due the the crazy thunderstorms.  Pulled off a win and enjoyed the day in the great trails of SC.  10 mile race with 2200 ft climbing/descent on very rocky, wet course.  Not sure when I've ever won two races in the same week before.  Now 2 more hard weeks before the taper for Umstead.

AM- 10.  Right quad is slightly sore, otherwise feel fine from the race.

Lunch- 11  

Finally got up a race report for Saturday.  Fun race. 

Lunch- 8

PM- PM with Barry and Justin, running a few non-standard trails (like the slow, twisty, technical Brissy Ridge).  10.57 miles in 1:53 with 1500 ft climbing.  Bonked, so Barry was kind enough to give me a gu he had.  Feeling a bit tired, worn down, and borderline sick.  So went to bed at 10 and slept 7 hrs.  Oh yeah, did I mention it's our 8th anniversary today? 

AM- Bread and butter BW.  14.5 miles with 10 MP (6:03 avg).  Felt pretty good today.

Lunch- 8 miles with the guys, followed by a full 20 min of core work and leg strengthening. 

AM- 8

Lunch- same, followed by stretching.  Man, are my eyes tired and sore today. 

Lunch- 4+4.  I got almost 8 hrs sleep last night and felt a ton better.

AM- Run on the rolling hills around my house.  Ran 14 miles, including 6 at tinman tempo effort.  Then had to go home since Marci is going out of town with some friends.  Took the girls to the gym and did 6 more.  20 miles total in about 2:25.

Only one word for how I feel right now- exhausted.  Plain tired and beat. 

Here's a nice picture from the Mind Over Matter 15k website, showing the female winner crossing one of the log bridges.

AM- 8

PM- 6 plus 1 Altra.  Stomach wasn't happy with something I ate over the weekend. 

AM- For the life of me, I honestly can not remember if I did 6, 7, or 8 miles this morning.  I think that must be a little-known result of high mileage.  We'll go with the middle number.

Lunch- 8+3. 

Looks like the high is 83 tomorrow, and in the 70's and 80's for the next 10 days.  Springtime. 

Lunch- 8 on the first 80 deg day of the year.

PM- Paris Mtn with Barry, Justin, and Paul.  12 miles in about 2 hours on a warm evening.  I usually buy dinner on the way home but didn't tonight, forgetting that shopping day is tomorrow.  Scrounged together a hodgepodge of  ramen noodles with fried eggs, mandarin oranges, and chocolate milk.

Lunch- 5+3 on a warm day

Up way too late last night for a morning run.  In bed at 11, but didn't sleep till 1:30 am.  We're trying to potty train our 3.5 year old and she held her bladder for 15 hours, refusing to use the bathroom!  Finally took a leak at 1 am, but wouldn't go again today.  Determined kid. 

Lunch- Tapers are strange, cause I feel like trash with dead legs for the first while, even though I'm running fewer miles than before the taper.  Today was the first day this week I felt fairly decent.  Ran 6 miles easy by myself on the GE track in 80 deg temps.  5k race tomorrow.

Won a race (my third this month), set a road/off-road 5k PR, and had an overall great time at the Milliken Earth Day run.  And wore a leprechaun hat the whole time- really.  Good times.  Who says you have to do speedwork to set a 5k PR- I think you should just train for a 100 miler!  Race report here.  Even broke out my oldest shoes for the first time in 5 years- go NB 800's (the precursor to the NB 101's).  Must be lucky.

AM- 5 ez.  Gotta love taper.  Well, not really- starting to go stir crazy and think I'm over-tapering.

AM- 3 warmup, 8 tinman tempo, 1 cooldown.  Did the whole thing wearing my UA Cold Gear- trying some last minute acclimatization to be ready in case next week is as warm as this has been (85 deg highs every day).

Lunch- yoga 

PM- PM with Justin and Barry.  11 miles with 1400 ft climbing.  Uneventful, other than Justin's foot almost falling off and Barry calling Papa John's from a few miles out so we got some nice pizza delivery just after finishing, which we ate while watching the Western States movie, Unbreakable.  Fitting.

Lunch- 6 with Phil and Jim, then 5 min abs.  Nice weather today with even a brief rainstorm.

Lunch- 6.5 run with Jim, then an In It To Win It obstacle course.  Got beat by a coed team.  Again.

Looks like they updated the entrants list for Umstead.  Got a lot more competitive.  2011 winner John Dennis, 2011 runner up Serge Arbona, 13:18 100 miler Mike Morton, Rocky Raccoon 100 mile champ Liza Howard, Troy Shellhamer, and others.  Fun.

AM- Camped out last night with my 5 year old, which may not have been the smartest thing since I hardly slept and since she was coughing on me all night.  Felt terrible when I woke up and my run we appropriately terrible.  Almost quit at 2 miles, slogged it out for 8.5 in 1:13.  Felt absolutely horrid.  Hopefully this is the bottom of the taper and my legs will start feeling perky next week.  They better, cause the big race is in 1 week.

PM- Now I'm sick with a fever.  Hmm, this wasn't in my taper plan. 

No run, sick.  Legs are weak such that I can barely walk up a flight of stairs.  Good thing the 100 isn't today.

Lunch- 5 with Mike on a beautiful day in about 36 min.  Felt much better today, almost back to normal.

Got a free pair of Saucony Fastwitch in the mail yesterday.  First new lightweight trainers in a long time.  I got them since they don't make Tangents anymore but I didn't want to go as light as Kinvaras.  My last pair of Tangents lasted 5+ years, so we'll see how long these last.  I only wear them for road racing and a few workouts, so not much these days. 

Lunch- 5 with a few strides.  Felt pretty sluggish and bad again.  Hope I really start feeling better in the next few days.  

Weather forecast for Sat is shaping up to be about 60 deg in the morning, high of upper 70's, with 50% chance of afternoon showers. 

Lunch- 3.  Felt tired and worse than yesterday.  Blah.

Quick Report- ran a decent Umstead 100 and had a good time.  Placed 4th overall while watching the amazing Mike Morton set a CR and 2 previous winners DNF chasing him.  Final time of 15:19 is 16th fastest ever on this 19 year old race.  Set my 50k, 50 mile, 100k, and 100 mile PR, so can't complain about that.  Marci and the kids were there cheering the whole time, and I had the most awesome crew and pacers that kept me from quitting at mile 50 when I felt terrible and weak (gotta stop racing when sick).  Good weekend.  

Full report now published.